In my database, 8. g2-g3 was played 35 times previously and 8. d2-d3 was played one time previously. Humorously, although 8. d3 allows mate in 2, that game example went 8. d3 Nxf3+ (so far, so good) 9. Qxf3 and now black uncorked 9… Ne5 eventually drawing instead of 9… Qh2 mate. (Brakus (2077) – Markovic (1662) Belgrade Spring Open 2009.) Trying to get away from that 8. d3 “story”, let’s return to these two top GMs.

Laznicka played the rather ugly looking 8. g3 Nxf3+ 9. Qxf3 Ne5 and went on to lose this balanced position after further miscues.

There are other lines, but white has great compensation in all of them. Never before seen?

Chess U News

The iPhone/iPad app Chess U continues to grow. We have new authors in July 2011.

July 2011 Author Contingent

We have Frank Johnson authoring Chess-Coach 101, 102, and 103 to support his chess camps, Gabby Kay just finished Classics 101 (10 famous games such as the Evergreen Game Anderssen-Kieseritsky, and Morphy’s Opera Box Game and Fischer’s Game of the Century, D. Byrne-Fischer), and Marcel Martinez just finished Middlegame 201 (10 of his instructive efforts vs. such luminaries as Robert Hess and Julian Hodgson). Coming soon we have Jones Murphy, in collaboration with IM Kamran Shirazi, present ten recent Shirazi efforts. Later this summer we expect to have GM Eugene Perelshteyn author a first effort on the Accelerated Dragon.

1: “Impitoyable” : french title for the film “Unforgiven”, by and with C. Eastwood (and G. Hackman, R. Harris, M. Freeman …) ; but “impitoyable” means rather “pityless” or “mercyless” ; I will nevertheless accept takebacks for obvious mouseslips and ask for them … only in that case of course. 2: International Master since 1996 ; maths teacher since 2001. 3: Can you queen your f-pawn as early as move 18 playing black ? See my liblist, game Index 4 ! 4: You may improve your play in knights endings by analysing my defeat versus Vidocq, game numbre 16. 5: You don’t get a chance each day to play as Morphy did at the Sevilla Opera. Egor Geroev-2 had this chance, see my lybrary game number 18 (after 15 … Qxb5 16 Nc7+! ; Rxc7 17 Rd8 it’s exactly the same mate !)

He has a very good score against me overall. I was looking to improve my statistics by following an obscure recommendation of Kasparov and Nikitin versus the popular Keres Attack.

Often times white likes to put his queen out on the aggressive h5 square. Then, black can follow the same plan as in the game!

10…Nxd4 Part of a sequence that gives black freedom of movement.

11. Qxd4 e5 12. Qd1 Nb6!?

The interesting proposal of Kasparov and Nikitin from an ancient book on the Scheveningen. White can opt to eat this horse with Be3xb6 to gain control of d5 but that move is definitely not on most attacking players’ radar screens. They just want to give mate.

Why do I award black’s 18th move an exclamation point and then go on to lose in short order? That’s the puzzle for you – identify the beautiful missed black win! Immediately after the game I had the feeling I had blown a promising position but I didn’t know how promising until I checked with Rybka 4. Embarrassing, black was totally winning!

Game 2

Let’s follow this embarrassing blown win with another embarrassing blown win, shall we? This time we are dominating and crushing Logofet.

This was a very pleasing move to play at the end of the combination! A very unusual overloading where white’s queen cannot stay in touch with the rook. Of course, White can resign now. He played on, since it is blitz.

Shindig Chess

On June 14, an online tournament was held. These GM players won in a five-round game/15 event:

Robert Hess 4.5

Giorgi Kacheishvili 4.5

Alex Lenderman4.5

Baadur Jobava 4.5

Bartosz Socko 4.5

There were 15 players in all. I don’t know how the pairings were done, but guess how many of the winners I played? 1? 2? No 3? 4? No.

I played all the winner! Every round, I was playing one of the above-mentioned guys! A world record? Never before seen in tournament play? I think so! Instead of dwelling on my bad result, here’s a great blitz game I played:

IM Aries2 – GM Baadur Jobava (GEO)

Mark

Baadur

1

♘f3

♞f6

2

♙c4

♟g6

3

♘c3

♝g7

4

♙e4

♟d6

5

♙d4

♚0-0

6

♗e2

♞a6

7

♔0-0

♟e5

8

♖e1

♟c6

9

♖b1

♞c7

10

♙d5

♟cxd5

11

♙cxd5

♞h5

12

♙g3

♟f5

13

♘d2

♞f6

14

♙f3

♟h5

15

♙a4

♟h4

16

♘c4

♟hxg3

17

♙hxg3

♞h5

18

♔g2

♞e8

19

♖h1

♟f4

20

♙g4

♞g3

21

♖h3

♞f6

22

♖xg3

♟fxg3

23

♔xg3

♞e8

24

♗e3

♜f7

25

♕g1

♝f6

26

♗xa7

♜xa7

27

♕xa7

♟b5

28

♕xf7+

♚xf7

29

♘xb5

♝g5

30

♖h1

♚g7

31

♙b4

♝a6

32

♘ba3

♝xc4

33

♘xc4

♞f6

34

♙b5

♞d7

35

♙a5

♞c5

36

♙a6

♛b8

37

♖a1

♞b3

38

♙a7

♛h8

39

♙a8Q

♝f4+

40

♔f2

♛h4+

41

♔f1

♛h1+

42

♔f2

♞xa1

43

♘xd6

♛h2+

44

♔f1

♛h3+

45

♔f2

♛h2+

46

♔f1

♛h1+

47

♔f2

♛h2+

48

♔f1

♛h3+

49

♔f2

♛g3+

50

♔f1

♛h3+

51

♔f2

♛g3+

52

♔f1

♛h3+

Time Remaining: 00:46

Time Remaining: 00:04

Draw (this is the way Shindig outputted the game and emailed it to me).

Chess U on the iTunes Store

Our product Chess U has gained traction on the iTunes store. It’s a way to take guided quizzes to increase chess knowledge on openings, endgames, and classic games by famous grandmasters. As some readers have noticed, at its foundation it is simply an advanced PGN reader. Then we add on the quiz elements and competition elements such as ratings, quiz scores, and graduation diplomas.

The free course is called Attack 101. This comes with the product. It goes over basic attacking techniques by examining and taking quizzes based on tussles I’ve had with strong players such as Petursson, Dzindzihashvili, and others. The first paid course we put together is Rook Endgames 101. It costs $0.99. Apple gets some of that. 🙂 The Rook Endgames is 16 classic positions ranging from Rook versus Pawn or two pawns to Rook and Pawn versus Rook. All the classic themes are in there: the Philidor Defense, stalemate tricks, the Saavedra study, building a bridge, cutting off the king, and so on. The Rook Endgames course is currently available in our most recent product build, which is Version 1.0.1. In Apple jargon, it is an “in-app purchase.” The user downloads the free Chess U and the free course Attack 101 and then has the opportunity to buy Rook Endgames 101. Hot on its heels is Play Like Anand 101. Here, we have taken 10 of World Champion Vishy Anand’s most spectacular games and built quizzes based on the key moments. It’s surprising how many difficult defenses the opponents missed in even the seemingly most one-sided of victories. We will also canvass guest strong player authors for their own selection of instructive quizzes. The basic course themes are:

Openings

Endgames

Famous Players

Sample Course Walkthrough: Rook Endgames 101

The user sees this welcome screen to start with (going over the various topics):

Welcome Screen, Rook Endgames 101

Starting the course reveals 16 Lessons.

16 Lessons in Rook Endgames 101

The next screen shows a quiz decision point for the user. This is one of the early lessons covering the decision (from the inferior side’s point of view) of whether or not to trade down into a pure King and Pawn endgame starting from a Rook and Pawn versus Rook ending.

Quiz Decision point in a Rook Endgames 101 Lesson

The user proceeds through the 16 Lessons and at the end has the option of generating a diploma upon successful graduation.

Here’s our banner ad if you would like to use it on your own web page.

Here’s a magazine print ad.

Banner Ad

Future Plans

Before talking about porting to other platforms, the first things are:

Create a custom iPad build to use the full iPad screen real estate. Currently it runs on the iPad but in “2X” magnification mode – that is to say, twice the zoom of the standard iPhone view.

More Courses

More User Testing

Astute users have already noticed it works quite well as a native PGN reader sans quizzes. This means it would do quite well at processing regular Internet chess game feeds. More on this later.

For More Information and Social Media Activity

To see more, and to “Facebook Like” it, or to “Twitter Follow” us, go to our web site. This also has our most recent “tweets” (product/course announcements and advance news on new features).

‘Chess U’- an iPhone Educational Chess Quiz Game

With the popularity of the iPhone in mind, my team has developed an instructional chess app called “Chess U”. It’s available on iTunes. I have worked with talented programmers from the USA, Australia, Taiwan, and Vietnam in this international effort. My old college buddy Steve Follmer has all the needed technical contacts from his berth in Taiwan.

Video Preview

The First Courses

The free Course is called Attack 101. This is basically ten of my interesting games with numerous quiz checkpoints, for example vs. Grandmasters Petursson, Dzindzihashvili, Balinas, and others.

We also offer paid Courses ($0.99 a course, standard pricing fare for an iPhone) on Rook Endgames 101 and soon we will also offer Play Like Anand 101. Many of the instructive Rook endgames examples I recreated (in some cases with some extra preliminary moves) from the very instructive book “Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual Volume 2.“

We will continue to introduce courses along the themes of openings, endgames, and famous players. “Attack 101” will always be free and the paid content will continue merrily along at $0.99 per Course. Each course contains numerous Lessons and Quiz checkpoints. When the user “graduates” from a course, he or she can request a Diploma from the system. The happy graduate receives the Dipoma with the course, date, and user information filled out.

Screenshot

Here’s a screenshot. We want the app to be as simple as possible to operate. Tap on right side of board to go forward a move; tap on left side of board to go back.

Chess U Screenshot

Future Plans

Besides the iPhone, we also want to populate the content onto the Web, for example via Facebook. We also want to port to Android. In the meantime, we’ll focus on increasing the number of Courses and fine-tuning existing Courses so that a significant user base can get a feel for it.

Try it, It’s on iTunes

To download it for free, just click here. GIve us your feedback after you’ve tried it out.